House Improvement Guide

Roof Replacement Cost Estimator

Answer a few questions about your roof and get a realistic range built from sourced national cost data. This national estimate widens to reflect uncertainty; for a range adjusted to local cost data, use the estimator on your metro’s cost page.

The roof, not the floor plan — a roof is usually 10-30% larger than the home's footprint because of pitch and overhang. If you only know the house size, add about 20%.

Rot is only visible once the old roofing is off, so it is the most common mid-job change order. Including it here shows the money rather than hiding it.

How the estimate is computed

Every range starts from a researched national cost baseline: sourced per-square-foot installed rates for each shingle grade and for standing-seam metal, a sourced tear-off and disposal rate, a sourced decking replacement rate, and a separate sourced range for repairs. Each figure is recorded with the public source that stated it and the date that source stated it.

Roofing is priced by area, so the calculation is a sourced rate multiplied by your roof area — there is no size-scaling curve here, because the trade genuinely quotes per square (100 square feet) and inventing a discount for larger roofs would be inventing a fact. Tear-off is charged per layer at its own sourced rate, and the decking contingency, when you ask for it, prices a stated share of the deck at its own sourced rate.

Two adjustments are NOT sourced and are labeled as such wherever they apply: the uplift for a steep pitch and the uplift for working two or more storeys up. No public source gives a formula for either. They are stated planning adjustments layered on top of sourced money, and each one renders as a named driver on your result so you can see exactly what moved the number.

On a metro cost page, the same engine localizes the range with that metro’s regional price parity index (the Bureau of Economic Analysis all-items RPP, where 100 equals the national average). That is a general cost-of-living measure applied as the best available local proxy, not a construction-specific index — and it is only applied where the metro’s research artifact carries it from a named source, never synthesized from wages, population, or home values.

Where no sourced local index exists — including on this page, which runs nationally — the range is widened instead (the low end ×0.9, the high end ×1.15) and the result says so. A wider, honest range beats a precise-looking number with nothing behind it.

What each input changes

Replacement or repair
Selects which sourced figure the calculation starts from. A repair is priced from its own national repair range and is deliberately not scaled by your roof size — the source reports one range for a repair, and repair cost tracks the damaged area, not the whole roof.
Roof area
The main driver of a replacement, and the input people most often get wrong: a roof is usually 10-30% larger than the home’s footprint because of pitch and overhang. Every replacement figure is a sourced per-square-foot rate multiplied by this number.
Covering
Selects the sourced per-square-foot rate: 3-tab, architectural, and luxury asphalt each have their own researched band, and standing-seam metal is priced from a rate derived from one source’s own stated project figure and reference size.
Layers to remove
Tear-off and disposal priced per layer at a sourced per-square-foot rate. Going over an existing layer avoids it — where local code allows, which the metro permit pages cover.
Decking contingency
Prices a stated share of the deck at the sourced decking-replacement rate. Rot is only visible once the old roofing is off, which makes it the most common mid-job change order; including it shows the money rather than hiding it.
Pitch and storeys
Stated planning adjustments for staging, fall protection, and access — not sourced rates, and labeled as such on the result. A low-slope roof gets a caveat instead of a multiplier, because a genuinely flat roof is a membrane job this baseline does not price.
ZIP code and metro
On a metro cost page, selects that metro’s sourced regional price parity index; here, running nationally, no index is applied and the range widens to say so.

Worked examples

Example roofs computed at build time by the same estimate function the interactive form calls — the numbers below cannot drift from what the estimator would tell you, because they are its output. Every figure is an estimate for planning, never a quote.

A 2,000 sq ft roof, architectural shingles, one layer off

The most common job on the board: a single-storey house at a normal walkable pitch, one existing layer torn off, architectural shingles going back on, no decking contingency requested.

$8,100–$21,850Typical duration: 1–7 days

ESTIMATE

Sourced national baseline line item "shingle_architectural_per_sqft" ($4–$8 per sq ft), × 2,000 sq ft of roof area; stated pitch/height planning adjustments and any sourced tear-off and decking rates applied; no local index available, so the range is widened (×0.9 low, ×1.15 high).

What moved this range

  • Covering and roof area — 2,000 sq ft of architectural asphalt shingle, priced at a sourced per-square-foot installed rate.
  • Tear-off and disposal — One layer of existing roofing removed and hauled away, at a sourced per-square-foot rate.
  • No local cost index — No sourced cost index exists for this area, so the range is widened and left as unadjusted national data.

Baseline sources: fixr.com, homewyse.com, fixr.com

The cheapest version of the same roof

Same house and same area, but 3-tab shingles instead of architectural and nothing to tear off — the floor of what a full replacement can cost before local pricing is applied.

$5,400–$11,500Typical duration: 1–7 days

ESTIMATE

Sourced national baseline line item "shingle_3tab_per_sqft" ($3–$5 per sq ft), × 2,000 sq ft of roof area; stated pitch/height planning adjustments and any sourced tear-off and decking rates applied; no local index available, so the range is widened (×0.9 low, ×1.15 high).

What moved this range

  • Covering and roof area — 2,000 sq ft of 3-tab asphalt shingle, priced at a sourced per-square-foot installed rate.
  • No local cost index — No sourced cost index exists for this area, so the range is widened and left as unadjusted national data.

Baseline sources: fixr.com, fixr.com

A steep two-storey roof in standing-seam metal

The same 2,000 sq ft area, but a steep pitch on a two-storey house in standing-seam metal, with two existing layers to remove and a decking contingency included.

$15,370–$54,360Typical duration: 1–7 days

ESTIMATE

Sourced national baseline line item "metal_per_sqft_derived" ($6–$16 per sq ft), × 2,000 sq ft of roof area; stated pitch/height planning adjustments and any sourced tear-off and decking rates applied; no local index available, so the range is widened (×0.9 low, ×1.15 high).

What moved this range

  • Covering and roof area — 2,000 sq ft of standing-seam / steel metal, priced at a sourced per-square-foot installed rate.
  • Tear-off and disposal — Two layers of existing roofing removed and hauled away, at a sourced per-square-foot rate.
  • Decking contingency — Assumes 15% of the deck is replaced, at a sourced per-square-foot rate. The share is a stated planning assumption, not a measurement — rot is only visible once the old roofing is off.
  • Steep pitch — Staging, fall protection, and slower material handling. This is a stated planning adjustment, not a sourced rate.
  • Roof height — Two storeys: harder access, staging, and debris handling. A stated planning adjustment, not a sourced rate.
  • No local cost index — No sourced cost index exists for this area, so the range is widened and left as unadjusted national data.

Baseline sources: fixr.com, fixr.com

A repair rather than a replacement

What the same homeowner sees when the roof does not need replacing yet — priced from a sourced repair range, and deliberately not scaled by the size of the roof.

$360–$2,190Typical duration: 1–2 days

ESTIMATE

Sourced national baseline line item "roof_repair" ($400–$1900 per project), not scaled by roof area (the source states no reference size for a repair); stated pitch/height planning adjustments and any sourced tear-off and decking rates applied; no local index available, so the range is widened (×0.9 low, ×1.15 high).

What moved this range

  • Repair, not replacement — Priced from a sourced repair range rather than a per-square-foot replacement rate.
  • No local cost index — No sourced cost index exists for this area, so the range is widened and left as unadjusted national data.

Baseline sources: fixr.com

Get a locally adjusted estimate

These metro cost pages run the same estimator with local price data applied: